Deliberate Epicures

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Oh, wait - I just said we. So the "we" in question is me and my fiance. We both really enjoy food and we will be working this blog together. I'm the cook - he's mostly the restaurant guy. He cooks as well, but much cooler than that is that he conducts food tours (mostly in the Lower East Side of New York City).

By the way, I've been good too. New job, new apartment, same cat. I have found some new recipes and tastes that I will be sharing. I don't exactly plan out my week anymore. Rather, I go to Trader Joe's on the weekend and pick out whatever catches my eye.

Lately, the household has moved towards whole foods and healthy eating. We rarely have meat in the house, we eat lots of veggies, grains, and fruit. Oh and eggs! Eggs are good. I have eggs every morning. My fiance has a fruit and vegetable smoothie every morning.

So, when we try something new in the kitchen or when we want to feature a restaurant that we love, we will post it here. We might do other things too - who knows. It's all about food though.

Oh - one event that is coming up is The World Series. While neither of us follow baseball (or sports at all, unless snooker counts), we like to use the major sports championships as a way to explore foods from other places in North America. We are rooting for Washington and Detroit since we haven't tried to make cuisine from either city.

Also, we tend to eat out and go to an indie movie every Friday - maybe we'll have some kind of "dinner + movie review." I might let my fiance write the first one of those - we saw "The Zero Theorem" (his choice) and went to a restaurant that is owned by the uncle of a friend of his sisters. Which is a long way of saying that we don't know the owner at all.

We will try to post as often as we can, loyal fans (at last count, there were five of you - how exciting). So tell a friend that we are back!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Although I try not to pay much attention to celebrity docs (not Dr. Oz, not Dr. Phil and especially not Dr. Laura....perhaps Dr. Ruth....sometimes Dr. Drew....), I found this enticing recipe from Dr. Oz in the November issue of Natural Health. I decided to give it a try for the upcoming thanksgiving dinner (and made it ahead of time to leave room for a plan B, just in case). Turns out it was totally tasty! And healthy to boot!

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add half of the garlic and cook until soft but not yet golden. Raise to high heat, add the stock and kale and mix. Cover and cook for 3 minutes, then uncover and continue cooking, stir until all the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and white pepper. Set aside to cool.

Add cooled kale and pecans to a food processor; pulse until pecans are chopped and kale is shredded but mixture is still chunky.

In a separate saucepan heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat; add the onion and remaining garlic; saute 2 to 3 minutes. Add the sage and thyme; continue cooking until onion is caramelized, approximately 3 to 4 more minutes. Stir in the pecan-kale mixture.

Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Add the cooked quinoa and stir to combine. Stir in the remaining tablespoon of oil and melted butter. Season with salt and white pepper.

Add the egg and wine and toss to coat. Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish. Cover and bake 30 minutes. Garnish with pomegranate seeds before serving.

The sage, thyme, onions and garlic give the dish a traditional stuffing flavor. The quinoa, kale and pomegranate make it super-duper healthy. I give this recipe two thumbs up for fine holiday eating!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The nutritional benefits of soy have been sensationalized in the US in the past few years. It is true, the soybean does tout many health benefits. However, we have recently seen concerns emerging over the newly popular and widely used food. These concerns relate to both nutritional aspects and the way in which the soybean is mass-produced here in the US and in other parts of the world as well. Let’s take a look at the many sides of soy.

Most soybeans produced end up being used as feed for cows, chickens and pigs (not their natural dietary choice, it helps to make their stomachs explode or get infections, but I digress….)

So it does appear that soybeans really do offer a lot of nutritional benefits, if you eat whole soy rather than refined products. As always, we need to know where our food is coming from and what has been done to it. This is not always an easy thing to do. There was an excellent documentary made this year about the food industry in the US called Food, Inc. There was a segment about soybean production that I don't think you would want to miss.

Monday, July 27, 2009

More ingredients from the farmer's market this week. Nothing terribly fancy though. Lots of PB & J and Hot Cereal throughout the week. Very budget friendly! Also, I will have some dinners out later in the week (which will balance out that money I saved).

Thursday, July 23, 2009

I have been so excited to use my fresh produce from the farmer's market. I started off the week by using a recipe from the association that coordinates my local farmer's market. It is a great pasta dish that uses my new favorite thing in the world, goat cheese, and something I've never really known what to do with, beet greens.

Just a forewarning, this makes A LOT of pasta. Be prepared to feed an army or have leftovers for days, maybe even weeks.

Penne with Beets, Beet Greens, Goat Cheese and Walnuts

2 bunches beets, with greens, trimmed and scrubbed - Save the beet greens (side note: I didn't actually get my beets at the farmer's market, I know....but they didn't have the beets with the greens still attached, so I had to go to my local supermarket.)

8 oz whole wheat penne

1/4 extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup heavy cream

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 tbsp chopped tarragon (I couldn't find this so I used basil instead)

1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

4 oz fresh goat cheese, crumbled (1/2 cup)

3/4 cup walnuts

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Bake beets wrapped in foil for about 45 minutes. In the meantime, wash the beet greens and cut into 1/2 inch wide strips, set aside. When the beets are done, cool them under cold water and peel skin off. Trim ends and cut into 1/2 inch thick slices.

Cook pasta until al dente, about 8 minutes.

In a skillet, heat oil. Add garlic, basil, and pepper flakes, cook about 1-2 minutes. Add beets and greens, until the greens are wilted.

Drain the pasta and add it to the pan. Stir in goat cheese and creme and bring to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with walnuts.

Serve immediately.

By the way, I've been fine with eating beets from a can. It just seemed like too much work to cook them in the oven. But, it was so worth it. They smelled so good! No more canned beets for me.

Should you eat a sizable portion of this beety meal, just be prepared for a health freak-out the next day. Just a warning. You're probably not hemorrhaging. But, who am I to say? I'm no doctor.